27 March 2008

Fail without Jesus

Today by the grace of God I was taught a few things. The lesson came from Jesus' disciples experience after the resurrection of Jesus (John 21:1-14). The passage tells us that the disciples went out fishing and they failed. Jesus asked them whether they had caught anything. Jesus' knowledge of the future enables him to know that the disciples would fail but He let it be. The failure was necessary to them to finally obey the instruction of a stranger (for they did not know it was Jesus). If Jesus would tell them where to throw the net before fishing, they might not listen to him because they are experienced fishermen. When they decided to take on board the suggestion, they finally harvested the fruits of the sea and recognized Jesus.

This event teaches us to be patient and take heart when we face failures. He knows it and He does not leave us alone. Instead, he is letting us know to only rely on Him and obey His voice then we will be successful. We, in our pride usually go ahead relying on our own ability and past experiences but this passage teaches us that we fail without Jesus eventhough we are experts.

It is actually easier for us to rely on Him because We just need to surrender our problems to Him knowing that He cares about us and are in control of all things instead of fighting and finding the solution on our own. However, the very fact of trusting in Him is also of our own choice and His grace. Hence, we do struggle in this. There are times we are burdened with excessive worries and fears to look beyond our failures even the future. Obeying His commands is also never easy because we are rebellious by nature. By God's grace and His mighty power, He will change these helpless and rebellious kids, He has unlimited patience (that's how Paul puts it), and above all continuously lavishing His grace and unconditional love that has ransomed us from fear (Bishop Les Mis.). O How I hunger for more of Him. Knowing Him will make you alive and desire it for more.

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